Thursday, July 28, 2011

These embroideries, made by craftster user loveandasandwich, are just too cute! I love the cute polka dot background, too. These would look great in a little cluster hanging on the wall. I love the use of felt, too, it gives the whole thing a slightly 3D feel to it. Check 'em out!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Sorry I didn't get a pattern up this week. I had pictures and everything all ready and then at the last moment I decided that I didn't like the way they looked, and then I promptly forgot about it. I haven't just been sitting around though, although I haven't been working on any crochet crafts lately. I feel bad, because there are many more patterns I want to make and share with everyone, but sometimes I have a pretty short attention span for those sort of things and I just couldn't bring myself to do any crochet this week.

BUT! Like I said, I have been pursuing other interests. I have been painting! I've been getting the boyfriend to teach me how to paint, and although I've only been doing it for a couple of weeks I think some of my stuff is pretty good, although I still need help with shading and the like. I'm still pretty bad at drawing. Here are my two most favorite creations.

A dinosaur! Look how happy he is. I think his little flamboyant hands are my favorite part.

And another dinosaur, this one wearing a hat and a saddle. The only reason I had him wearing these was because the main figure didn't turn out like I wanted, so I just decided to do something silly since I figured it was wasted anyway, but now I love him!

I haven't only been drawing dinosaurs, but those are my favorites so far. The rest of the stuff is just birds and little sketches, mostly because birds are pretty easy to draw. Anyway, hopefully I will get back on track soon and release another pattern. Hopefully.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Happy belated birthday to Nikola Tesla! His birthday was July 10th. Time for a roundup!

First off, a comic book about Tesla and his (best?) friend Mark Twain. No, seriously, they were friends in real life. How cool is that? It's called the Five Fists Of Science--again, how cool?! If you want kids to be interested in science, this comic book would probably do it, although if I remember correctly it's a little science fictiony, although no more than The Prestige (which is also awesome). Okay, maybe a little more fictiony than that.

I would buy these in a second if they weren't so expensive. Still, it looks like a lot of complicated work went into them, and I'm sure they're worth it...but the DIYer in me just screams at those prices. I helped re-wire my entire house, surely something like this would be doable, right?

Anyway, if you have never read about Tesla's works, you really should read up on him. He was working on a death ray! Like, a seriously bona fide evil scientist death ray. And he thought Einstein's theories were bunk. And the ladies loved him! Although I don't think he returned their feelings. Bros before hos, right Tesla? I can only imagine that if he were alive today we would definitely have space travel by now. And death rays.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Follow the base amigurumi pattern. Leia's body is entirely in the beige color, so you won't have to change colors at all.

Leia's SkirtLeia's skirt is made up of four pieces; two gold semi-circles and two long purple "cloth" pieces.

Semi-circle: Make twoLeave a long tail at the beginning. 6 inches should be enough.
ch 2, 3 sc in 2nd chain from hook
2 sc in each st, ch 1 and turn (6 st)
(1 sc, 2sc in next st) three times, ch 1 and turn (9 st)
(2 sc, 2 sc in next st) three times, BO and leave a long tail.

Purple Cloth: Make two
ch 7, turn
6 sc, ch 1 and turn
do this for each row, for about 8 rows or until your purple cloth is even with Leia's feet. When it is to the desired length, sc around the edges for a nice, finished feel.

Attach the purple cloth to the gold semi-circle. Use the long gold tail you left, per the instructions above, to attach the piece. It can look pretty messy on the backside, as long as the front looks nice it doesn't really matter.

Once you attach everything you should have two semi-circles with purple cloth attached to them. Take these two pieces and position them on either side of Leia's body. Now use the other long tail from the gold semi-circles to attach the pieces to each other. As you can see from the picture, I took the tail from the first piece, looped it through the second, and then secured the whole thing with a knot in the first piece.

Leia's bra
Leia's bra is probably one of the more difficult pieces on this amigurumi, mainly because of the embroidery required. Use a smaller hook for the entirety of the bra.

Make a chain around the upper body. This will be the bottom part of the bra (the underwire, if you will). Use a slip stitch to secure the chain.
Now, chain 15. (this will be the first strap of the bra)
sc in 2nd chain from hook
Switch to brown yarn. (this is where the cup starts)
sc in next chain, ch 1 and turn
2 sc in next st, 1 sc, ch 1 and turn
1 sc, 2 sc in next st, 1 sc, BO. Leave a longish tail.

With the gold yarn, pick up a stitch from the beginning gold chain and chain 15 again for the other strap. Follow the instructions above to make the next cup for the bra.

Now take the gold yarn and grab your embroidery needle. Basically you are trying to make a number "3" on the right cup and an inverse "3" on the left cup. The bright turquoise lines on the picture to the left illustrate what the design should look like. You can see from my picture above that I achieved limited success on this, but the overall effect is still okay even though it's not perfect.

Once you are done with both sides, use the long tail to attach the brown triangle to the bottom gold chain. You can attach the bra to the body if you wish; if you made it tight enough, though, it shouldn't move too much. I did secure mine because I made the original chain around the body too big and it kept wanting to slide down. A few stitches should be enough to anchor it in place.

Leia's accessories

So now the hard part is over! All that's left now is some easy chain stitch accessories. Use a smaller hook for these pieces except where noted.

For the arm band, chain 30-35 stitches in a smaller hook. You want the length of chain to wrap around her arm about 3 times. When you are finished, BO and use the long tail to attach the arm band securely to the arm.

For the choker, use a smaller hook to make a chain that fits snugly against the neck, about 22-25 stitches. Attach with a slip stitch and switch to a bigger hook. Make the next length of chain very loose, to simulate actual chains. I made about 20, but you can make as few or as many as you prefer.

Leia's Hair

Follow the yarn hair tutorial. The pieces that you are going to need are going to be pretty long; probably about 10-12 inches or so. Don't be afraid to go really easy on the hair. I made my Leia's hair like normal and then took out most of the hair on the backside of her head, because the braid will cover that part anyway and I didn't want it to be too bulky. Experiment with what works best for you.

Once you have all the hair attached, gently braid it. Attach at the bottom with a piece of gold yarn.

You're done! Help support this pattern by making your next Amazon purchase through this link!

Leia's Belt:
Chain about 28 stitches. Do a test fitting before slip stitching the ring together--the belt should fit firmly in the little dip where the skirt and body were attached. You want the belt to be snug, but not pinchy.
Once you have the right amount of chain stitches, slip stitch the ring together. Single crochet for 14 stitches (or until the halfway point) and then make three double crochets in the next three stitches. Continue with single crochet until the end of the row. Cut yarn and pull through the last loop.

Center the double crochet part of the belt with the front of Leia's body. You can attach the belt to the body if you wish, but it should be tight enough to stay on it's own. Weave in the ends.

Leia's Hair:

Attach the hair using the yarn hair tutorial. I like Silk Bamboo Yarn for Leia's hair. Once you have attached the hair using those directions, split the hair to either side of the head, as if you were making ponytails. I like to have a couple of long pins handy to keep the hair in place once I twist it.

Take one of the sides and twist the hair gently, being careful not to pull too tightly. Once you twist it enough the hair should want to begin forming a bun; all you have to do is help it along it's path. Tuck the ends of the hair underneath the bun, out of sight. Now is a good time to pin the bun in place--don't be afraid to use 5 or 6 pins here. Now, take a length of the brown yarn you used for the hair and come up through the center of the bun. Attach the bun to the head in a radial pattern, always coming up from the center. You don't need to be too concerned with attaching the bun to the head, just try and make the bun keep its form.

Just a note: Leia's hair buns are pretty difficult to get right. Once one side is in, take care to make sure the other is at the same height, is roughly the same size, etc. It might take a couple of tries until you get it just right, but once you do it's totally worth it!

Adding a dress to a character is very easy! First of all, simply follow the base amigurumi instructions. The dress will fit over the legs. Once your ami is fully stuffed and ready to go, follow these simple steps!

Step 1: Pick up stitches

You will noticed a slight crease in your amigurumi right around the waistline from the original 30 stitches that you crocheted. That crease is where you are going to pick up stitches for the dress. Pick up 30 stitches and single crochet them in a row around your ami's waist.

Note: Picking up these stitches is pretty tough. Sometimes I switch to a slightly smaller hook for just this row so that it is a little easier.

After the 2 even rows, you are going to start increasing slightly. Just do one increase on each side of the dress, indicated by the arrows below. I like to increase on the sides so that the front of the dress is unobstructed.

Do this for about 3 or 4 rows; enough to get over the "thighs". If you want a poofy dress continue to increase, but if you want a tighter dress stop increasing. (If you want a mini dress, you can stop now!) Continue on in even rows until the dress is the desired length.